Sometimes it’s difficult to know who and what to believe and sometimes it isn’t.
Governor Scott Walker is advertising that his reforms are working. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported that between March 2011 and March 2012 Wisconsin lost 23,900 jobs. That’s more lost jobs than any other state in the nation. Most were government jobs but the number of private-sector jobs lost topped the list as well. For this performance, Walker is cheering,” We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1.” Really?
Walker’s campaign says that Tom Barrett would make a terrible governor because he is a terrible mayor. Barrett was elected mayor of Milwaukee in 2004, re-elected in 2008 with 79 percent of the vote and re-elected again in 2012 with over 70 percent. If he is so terrible why do so many want him back?
Walker’s campaign says that Barrett is going backwards and will move Wisconsin backwards as well. But from what I’ve seen of Walker and the state Republican lawmakers it is they who are moving Wisconsin backward; back to the days before public and private-sector labor unions, back to before we cleaned up and began protecting everyone’s air, water and soil through environmental protection regulations, back to the “good old days” when a handful of industrialists accumulated vast amounts of wealth at the expense of the environment and the backbones of the masses.
Why have so many jobs left Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S.? Because more money can be made with cheaper labor, less environmental regulations and less taxes. Therefore, Walker’s solution to Wisconsin’s problems is to make Wisconsin “Open For Business” by weakening labor, weakening environmental protection and lowering corporate tax rates. How are the reforms working?
We’re No. 1! We’re No. 1! We’re No. 1!
This country was founded and made great by people who wanted a better way than their current situation. They raised their voices and took action. That’s what the recalls are all about. There are some who say the teachers and other public workers are whiners. Is that what you would call the founders of this country too? If Walker had not excluded police and firefighters in his attack on the freedom to collectively bargain would they be whiners too if they stood up and let their voice be heard?
The recalls are about checks and balances. To say it is a waste of time is to say defending one’s rights is a waste of time. To say it is a waste of money is to place a price on the countless lives that were sacrificed in order that we should be able to vote, to vote for freedom, and to recall someone who works to destroy those freedoms instead of enhance them.